I've spent the past few weeks trying to get by with Apple's own Notes and Reminders apps.
Read a lot of tips and tricks, saw a lot of reviews, and did my very best to get them to work to the limits.
Well, I learned a lot.
First: Notes. The native app works for me at this point, but I'm really liking it's El Capitan update. More than anything else, this is the main reason I will definitely go with Notes. I started using other techniques to keep track of things, one of which is using labels in the Finder. Found out you can drag a label to the Dock ;-) See "prg" in my screenshot.
This allows me to quickly find files I need, directly leading to me taking less notes - simple as that.
Next: Reminders. If only El Capitan came with an update on this one too... The present app isn't enough for my needs, so I'm back with an old love of mine - Things. Stuff I miss in Reminders is the Projects/Areas duality, tags, and a fluent way to go through and manage your Inbox. I'm using tags in lower case for GTD contexts, and tags in upper case for my team members. Because, in order to complete my tasks, I often need them - so that's how I came to the idea of tagging them.
Desktop picture: Anno by Winnichip
And finally, sorry for blinding some spots in the Dock (hiding beta's...)